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Original Message

“The Satire Of The Trades”

The scribe is merely a child, but he is addressed respectfully. He is sent to perform official missions, and before he returns he dresses himself in a gown.

I have never seen a sculptor as an official envoy, no that a goldsmith is sent. I’ve seen a coppersmith at his work, at the mouth of his furnace, his fingers like the claws of a crocodile, and he stinks worse than fish roe.

Every carpenter who wields the adze, and he is wearier then the labor in the field. And his field is the wood, And his hoe the axe. And there is no end to his craft and he does beyond what his arms are capable of....

And the jeweler is boring carefully into every type of hard stone. He completes the inlay of an eye; his arms are exhausted and he is weary.He sits at sunset, with his knees and his back cramped.

The potter is under the soil, although he stands among the living.And he grabs in the mud more than a pig in order to bake his pots. His clothes are stiff with clay, his loincloth in rags. Breath enters his nose direct from his furnace. He tramples the clay with his feet, and is himself crushed by it.

-famous Middle Kingdom text for all trainee scribes pointing to the failings of all other trades. How biblical was influenced........